12610
To Kamenev

I write this to you because I was defeated in the Council of People's Commissars on this question, but I am fully convinced that Lunacharsky here displayed impermissible vacillation, and I fully sympathize with the "lesson" for Lunacharsky or the "lesson" directed at him. I was concerned about engaging in operetta at the Nikitsky Theatre, despite my warnings not to occupy myself with it. L.K.

Returning from yesterday's session in the Moscow Soviet, I received the following official communication:

Having ordered the Nikitsky Theatre opened, Lunacharsky summoned Evelinov and said to him: "If Kamenev tries to hinder you with his tricks, then call me even at 3 o'clock in the morning."

Evelinov spoke this in the presence of an official representative of the Moscow Soviet, who transmitted this to me. Is that good?

On December 29, 1919, by a decision of the Small Council of People's Commissars, the Nikitsky operetta theatre was closed. The grounds for the closure served the purely entrepreneurial character of this theatre.

The Large Council of People's Commissars on January 20, 1920, confirmed the decision of the Small Council of People's Commissars and the order of the Central Theatre Administration concerning the transfer of the theatre's property to temporary administrators; however, the People's Commissar of Enlightenment was given the right to reopen the theatre — as soon as the theatre's financial affairs are put in order and the theatre's repertoire is brought under control.

On [date] January 1920, the Small Council of People's Commissars heard a petition from the local committee of theatre artists requesting permission to temporarily continue operations and rejected it.

The People's Commissar of Enlightenment A. V. Lunacharsky gave the order to open the theatre given that the theatre workers found themselves in a difficult position.

On January 23, 1920, he addressed a letter to the Moscow Soviet so that henceforth the Moscow Soviet would be occupied with determining the fate of the theatre. A few days later, Lunacharsky directed another letter to the artistic subdepartment of the Moscow Soviet with a request to remove from any participation in the Nikitsky Theatre the former director B. E. Evelinov and people close to him. In February 1920, Lunacharsky in a letter to Lenin reported that he was sending him the protocol of the meeting of the theatre's new leadership.

12899
RESOLUTION ON A. D. TSYURUPA'S NOTE¹
[1920, February, no earlier than February 18]

Vladimir Ilyich,

I and those members of the collegium with whom I managed to confer are very distressed at the non-inclusion of Yuryev in the list of collegium members. This is unjust. Yuryev is a loyal person; industrious and dedicated to the cause, a faithful worker. In the political sense he is more disciplined, steadfast, and consistent than some of those who made it onto the list. His non-inclusion in the list now, when people have been included who permitted disorganizing outbursts, will only cause offense and will deprive Komprod* of a devoted worker. I do not exaggerate his abilities. He does not pluck stars from the sky. But in truth: which of us food supply commissars does? The wave of revolution raised us high, but in ourselves we are small people. Could the question not be decided differently?**

18/II A. Tsyurupa

I am in favor of retaining Yuryev².

Lenin

¹ A. D. Tsyurupa — a member of the RSDLP since 1898. From the beginning of 1918 — People's Commissar of Food Supply. From the end of 1921 — Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars and the Council of Labor and Defense.

² A. A. Yuryev entered the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Food Supply, confirmed on February 24, 1920, at a session of the Council of People's Commissars.

13019
TO THE PILOT OF THE "GERMAN AVIATION SOCIETY"
February 26, 1920

*To Pilot Polte¹
"German Aviation Society"
Berlin

Since the Central Union has authorized you to return to Germany, and your aeroplane has neither passengers nor any cargo whatsoever, I therefore request that you transport on your aeroplane to Berlin our trade representative for Switzerland, Frederick Platten², with his wife. The appropriate payment to the "German Aviation Society" for the transport of this passenger will be paid by Mr. Platten directly to that society³.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
V. Ulyanov (Lenin)

Published from the typescript text signed by V. I. Lenin

Willi Polte — in 1920 worked as a pilot for the "German Aviation Society"; he arrived in Soviet Russia with representatives of the German-Austrian commission on matters of prisoners of war.

* Underlined by V. I. Lenin. Lenin Collection XXXVIII

² Frederick (Fritz) Platten — professional revolutionary, Swiss communist. Was one of the organizers of V. I. Lenin's journey from Switzerland to Russia in April 1917. In 1920—1923 was in Switzerland; subsequently lived and worked in the USSR.

³ On March 18, 1920, V. Polte flew out of Smolensk with Soviet trade representative F. Platten and his wife on board, as well as mail.

In 1956, Polte published his memoirs in Bonn, "The Sky Belongs to Us," in which, in particular, he describes his flight to Soviet Russia in 1920 and mentions the letter he received from V. I. Lenin (Willi Polte. Uns aber gehorte der Himmel. Bonn, 1956, p. 92).

13024
RESOLUTION ON A TELEGRAM FROM SARATOV
[February 26, 1920]

To Sklyanski and Krasin,

so that they provide a copy of their response and report on 27/II in the Council of Defense

The Council of Defense on December 24, 1919, adopted a resolution recognizing as urgent operational tasks the construction of the Aleksandrov-Gay—Emba railway and pipeline, as well as the reconstruction to standard gauge of a section of the railway line Red Kut—Aleksandrov-Gay. The People's Commissariat of Military Affairs was given the assignment to dispatch two railway divisions to Saratov for the dismantling of the narrow-gauge line Red Kut—Aleksandrov-Gay. In a telegram of February 25 addressed to the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. I. Lenin, the chief engineer of Aleksandrov-Gay—Emba, A. V. Budassy, reported that the railway divisions designated for dismantling the tracks, despite a number of urgent demands, remain in their former locations, and requested an order be given to the People's Commissariat of Railways and the Central Administration of Military Communications regarding the urgent dispatch of both railway divisions (see also V. I. Lenin. Complete Collected Works, vol. 51, p. 121 and Lenin Collection XXXIV, pp. 266—267).

13134
TELEGRAM TO THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF MILITARY AFFAIRS
[March 13, 1920]
Operational

Telegram to the People's Commissariat of Military Affairs
Copy Moscow Main Commander of State Defense
Saratov Algamba

The question has been raised concerning an order to the Turkestan Front and the Caucasus Front to provide the most effective assistance [in] organizing a train of up to two thousand horses, partly camels, by mobilizing for this purpose transport means [in] the Pugachevsk and Uralsk region, supplying the train with fodder, for the urgent construction of Aleksandrov-Gay—Emba, [at the] disposal of chief engineer Budassy, Saratov. Urgently provide your opinion.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin

Published from the typescript text signed by V. I. Lenin

13135
TELEGRAM TO THE PEOPLE'S COMMISSARIAT OF HEALTH
[March 3, 1920]
Operational

Telegram to the People's Commissariat of Health
Copy Moscow Main Commander of State Defense
Saratov Algamba

The question has been raised [concerning] the immediate dispatch [to the] operational line Algamba [at the] disposal of chief engineer Budassy: Saratov, Moskovskaya, 30 — fifteen doctors, thirty paramedics, twenty nurses with all necessary equipment, medicines, disinfection chambers, given the complete absence on site of medicines and a severe typhus epidemic. Urgently provide your opinion*.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin

Published from the typescript text signed by V. I. Lenin

By the beginning of April 1920, two epidemic detachments, two bath detachments, 15 doctors, 100 paramedics and nurses, arrived for the construction of Aleksandrov-Gay—Emba. Responsibility for all sanitary measures was borne by the chief of the medical section of the 4th Army.

13155
INSCRIPTION ON A TELEGRAM FROM L. D. TROTSKY¹
[1920, March, no earlier than March 4]

I do not object if the title "Assistant Commander-in-Chief" is retained for Shorin².

Suspiciously absent are reports concerning Budenny and the 10th and 11th armies???³

¹ In a telegram addressed to the Deputy People's Commissar of Military Affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic E. M. Sklyanski, L. D. Trotsky reported that the Commander-in-Chief proposed summoning V. I. Shorin for work in Siberia. Trotsky requested that this question be discussed in the Organizational Bureau, inquired in what capacity, perhaps as a representative of the Revolutionary Military Council, Shorin should be introduced into the Siberian Revolutionary Committee and placed over the military district and command to establish order.

² V. I. Shorin in 1920—1921 was Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces in Siberia.

³ Beneath this text of V. I. Lenin there are notes by E. M. Sklyanski. Concerning S. M. Budenny and the 10th Army, Sklyanski wrote: "Were there, but apparently advancing weakly"; concerning the 11th Army it is written: "Were there, it has advanced."

S. M. Budenny — member of the RCP(b) since 1919. During the years of foreign military intervention and civil war, commanded a cavalry corps, then the 1st Cavalry Army.

26218
NOTE TO N. N. KRESTINSKY¹
March 10 [1920]

Comrade Krestinsky!

An extremely urgent matter — the sentence of execution for Kiselev. I saw him in 1910—1914 in Zurich, where he was a Plekhanovite and was accused of a series of abominations (I don't know the details). I saw Kiselev in 1918 or 1919 here in Moscow, in passing. Kiselev worked in *Izvestia* and told me that he was becoming a Bolshevik. I don't know the facts.

Consult with Kamenev².

Lenin

¹ The note was written concerning a sentence handed down to I. Kiselev in Kiev. Kiselev was accused of having remained there during the occupation of Kiev without party permission and of collaborating with the occupying authorities.

² In a reply note, the secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) N. N. Krestinsky informed V. I. Lenin that L. B. Kamenev [was in favor] of suspending the sentence and of demanding the case file. Krestinsky himself refrained from any decision, as he did not personally know Kiselev. If a decision is made to suspend the execution of the sentence, wrote Krestinsky, then a telegram must immediately be sent to Kiev, through F. E. Dzerzhinsky.